End times for carbon trading

Readers may recall this story this past week at WUWT: European Carbon Trading Hits Another Record Low.

It was a short lived record, beaten again the very next day.

Point_carbon_graphCapture

Today, from Reuters Point Carbon, a view of the end times for carbon trading:

EU carbon plummets 10 pct on German sale cancellation

18 Jan 2013 17:12

LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters Point Carbon) – European carbon prices plunged by as much as 10 percent on Friday after energy bourse EEX cancelled a German auction for 4 million EU Allowances, citing a lack of demand.

See also this essay at WUWT: The carbon trading money tree

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Dave Brick
January 19, 2013 8:51 am

And yet, Al Gore has still managed to become much wealthier:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/al-gore-nets-another-fortune-164510966.html

tallbloke
January 19, 2013 9:14 am

I would laugh, butit has cost the E.U. Taxpayer 270 billion euro up to last year. A lot more by now I expect.
http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/ubs-report-europes-287bn-carbon-waste/
The money could have cut European co2 emissions by 42%….

Editor
January 19, 2013 9:18 am

Carbon trading, electric cars that are “clean”, windmills that need conventional power station back up, solar panels in the UK that need conventional power station backup, biofuels that lead to starvation of the local population, forest clearance to plant said biofuel crop, global temperatures unchanged for 16 years, weather forecasts that aren’t fit for purpose, forecasts of climate armageddon that keep being moved further and further into the future, predictions of deaf fish, alien invasion etc, etc, etc, etc!
Welcome to the wacky world of Climate “Science”!

j fisk
January 19, 2013 9:21 am

So at last someone has seen through the “Emporer’s new clothes”

pat
January 19, 2013 9:22 am

Of course Al Gore got wealthier by doing some carbon trading of his own.He sold out to the oil ticks.

jbird
January 19, 2013 9:23 am

Forgive my ignorance, but what governments are now requiring the purchase of carbon credits by private enterprises in order to expand their businesses? I haven’t heard of any. If carbon credits are not compulsory, then TRADING in carbon credits is purely speculative at this point. Why would anyone want to speculate on empty paper when there is real stuff out there to speculate upon?
If it looks like a giant scam, then it is probably a scam.

Bloke down the pub
January 19, 2013 9:30 am

The future of carbon trading was doomed once the environmentalists realised that the only people who were benefiting from it were bankers.

Mark Ro
January 19, 2013 9:34 am
Doug Huffman
January 19, 2013 9:36 am

Al Gore has benefited from speculation, an essential aspect of capitalism that functions properly in an educated and skeptical market. See Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt’s The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, a chronological ana of papers from the Thirties John Dewey to Outcome Based Education – that is succeeding as well illustrated here.

January 19, 2013 9:39 am

How will BBC pension-fund managers explain this to shareholders?

William Astley
January 19, 2013 9:43 am

The EU greenhouse gas trading system is only a joke if you are an economic sadist. If you enjoy extraordinarily high costs for electrical power and transportation, get excited about the loss of the remaining primary industry in your country, and get a thrill to live in a country with massive unemployment, you should be a fanatic supporter of a greenhouse gas trading system and/or a massive carbon tax.
“More of the same,” was not the answer Mr Cameron was set to say, adding: “That will make our countries weaker, not stronger.” “People are increasingly frustrated that decisions taken further and further away from them mean their living standards are slashed through enforced austerity or their taxes are used to bail out governments on the other side of the continent (William: Tax payers are also frustrated with schemes to send tax dollars to corrupt third world governments to mitigate “climate” change or to pay for local green scams that do not significantly reduce carbon dioxide emission.),” he was intending to argue.
William: The faceless EU/UN/EPA bureaucracy requires a crisis to justify its existence. A carbon trading and world carbon dioxide emission monitoring scheme is job creation for the faceless bureaucracy.
“And yes, of course, we are seeing this frustration with the EU very dramatically in Britain. Europe’s leaders have a duty to hear these concerns. And we have a duty to act on them.”
“The EU greenhouse gas trading system should be replaced with a carbon tax if the bloc fails to repair a system that’s “a joke the whole world laughs about,” Johannes Teyssen, chief executive officer of EON SE, Germany’s biggest power utility, said in an interview with Manager Magazine published yesterday.”
The eurozone unemployment rate rose to 11.8% in November 2012 – the highest rate on record according to official figures out today.
Up from 11.7% in October, the latest figure has caused some concern in the eurozone. Graeme Wearden writes today:
German gross domestic product growth will slow to 0.4 percent this year from 0.7 percent in 2012, the Economy Ministry said in its annual report.

Stonyground
January 19, 2013 9:52 am

Stonyground says:
Sorry to be OT but the subject of the, probably faked, worm in the meteorite has popped up again at Pharyngula. When the name Watts appeared in the comments, I posted a comment, from memory:
To be fair to Anthony Watts his post on this was very sceptical. Greg Laden quoted him selectively to make it look as though he wasn’t. Laden also made the claim that Watts deletes his comments which is untrue.
I included a link to the rebbuttal of Laden’s accusation on this blog.
I have been commenting on blog posts for many years now and, because I am always polite, avoid bad language and always abide by the rules, I have never ever had one of my comments deleted. Until now. Presumably, sticking up for an evil denier in a place reserved for true believing alarmists, even when he is absolutely in the right, is just beyong the pale.

Andy
January 19, 2013 10:25 am

As with all scams and confidence tricks the art of making money is timing your exit.
Al Gore clearly believes the bubble is approaching bursting point with his conversion to happily accepting the green dollars of just about the biggest oil producer he could find. The markets would appear to agree with him.
No doubt the late comers to the trough, and the true believers, will attempt to drag out the endgame for as long as possible.
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end and not the end of the beginning of the Carbon scam.

January 19, 2013 10:35 am

janef20 says:
January 19, 2013 at 9:39 am
How will BBC pension-fund managers explain this to shareholders?
=====================================================
Investments can go down as well as up……………………..

mpainter
January 19, 2013 10:40 am

“The EU greenhouse gas trading system should be replaced with a carbon tax if the bloc fails to repair a system that’s “a joke the whole world laughs about,” Johannes Teyssen, chief executive officer of EON SE, Germany’s biggest power utility, said in an interview with Manager Magazine published yesterday.”
=====================
When his type says “tax carbon”, what do you think? Do you suppose that he feels certain that the tax will fall on the consumer and not on his profits?
Well, yes, of course.

January 19, 2013 10:46 am

jazznick (@jazznick1) says:
January 19, 2013 at 10:35 am
janef20 says:
January 19, 2013 at 9:39 am
How will BBC pension-fund managers explain this to shareholders?
=====================================================
Investments can go down as well as up……………………..
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Or,”we made some extremely poor decisions” !!

January 19, 2013 11:03 am

Strange. The pressure put on us to accept Carbon Trading is supposed to reduce Global Warming. Yet it’s pressure and heat that changes carbon into something worth trading.

January 19, 2013 11:06 am

As carbon trading is dying in Europe, California is just getting their cap-and-trade scam scheme underway in 2013:
http://tinyurl.com/da3nmx
California has already been looting the businesses that haven’t yet fled to less insane states; this should chase off the stragglers.

john
January 19, 2013 11:15 am

Anthony, the sudden changes in this administration regarding energy, interior, epa and the bonneville power administration are indicative of a full court press for a carbon tax or it’s equivalent. This has been an ongoing issue since the financial crisis of 2008. There are quite a few players (albeit unknown to most) here and lots of links to China. I will post my latest in ‘tips and notes’ and assure you that things come a bit more into focus. I would like to thank the people who took the time to view my previous work, (links articles), in tips and notes and really appreciate Anthony and mods for allowing me to do this.
Thanks again for all you do!
john from DB.

Editor
January 19, 2013 11:31 am

jbird says:
January 19, 2013 at 9:23 am

Forgive my ignorance, but what governments are now requiring the purchase of carbon credits by private enterprises in order to expand their businesses? I haven’t heard of any. If carbon credits are not compulsory, then TRADING in carbon credits is purely speculative at this point. Why would anyone want to speculate on empty paper when there is real stuff out there to speculate upon?

I can’t speak for the EU system, but here in New England and three other states any electric power producer using fossil carboniferous fuel and producing more than 25 MW (or something like that) has to purchase CO2 allowances. These are available either at auction or a speculative market. Problem is, the shift to natural gas, the recession, less attractive manufacturing environment, etc. have meant that recent auctions are undersold, so all the sales have been at the floor price, last year it was $1.93 per short ton. The speculative market has been a few cents below that. No windfall profits here!
See my http://wermenh.com/rggiwatch/index.html for more.

john
January 19, 2013 12:06 pm

Ric Werme says:
January 19, 2013 at 11:31 am
Thanks for the update Rick. I still see a push here and GE/First Wind/UPC (and all the shell and shelf LLC’s associated with “the UPC Family of Companies”) are coming into the picture at light speed. It’s Enron all over again with the same Enron players as before. You should also note that larger media like Bloomberg, have received the ‘Wind Made’ certification. So you can expect more media spin.
http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/bloomberg-becomes-first-news-organization-windmade-certification.html
Stay tuned for what I have and will post in ‘tips and notes’ (after a little editing) and see my comment above.
john from DB

mogamboguru
January 19, 2013 12:48 pm

janef20 says:
January 19, 2013 at 9:39 am
How will BBC pension-fund managers explain this to shareholders?
——————————————————————————————————————-
They will crank up the heating in the room during their next annual meeting and insist that all is well.

January 19, 2013 12:51 pm

For this to happen to such humanitarian philanthropists not interested in monetary gain is indeed a travesty. I weep for their bank manager’s potentially losing their second homes in paradise.

kakatoa
January 19, 2013 1:36 pm

Jaybird asks what government is requiring business to purchase carbon credits. The state of CA for one.
The details of who is a covered entity and how much a carbon credit will cost (at a minimum that is) is noted here-
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/capandtrade.htm

January 19, 2013 1:51 pm

Is this true? Pat?
http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/rimm/real-time#.UPrh6ydfCSp
Mod, This is not really off topic, carbon phone.

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